Sep 2007

Starting Mileage: 111585, Mt Rushmore SD
Ending Mileage: 111700, Badlands NP SD
Weather: Sunny 70 F

<<We'll probably stay in an RV park tomorrow, 9/14, so will upload more pic's then. I had dial up internet last night In Pierre, S.D. and typed up a beautiful entry for Day 10 - then accidentially deleted it before it posted! Ugh - decided to go to bed after that...>>

We got a late start from the RV park since we decided to catch up on our laundry while we were there. Yes - chores still have to be done even on the road! Mom & I alternate doing the dishes, but do those daily. I empty the RV holding tanks whenever we stay someplace with a dump station (usually two or three times a week - this is a bit often, but I have very small tanks). I also try to vacuum when possible (we have to be plugged in). Laundry is about once a week. We will probably also do shopping about once a week, but so far it's been easier just to stop when we happen to pass a store so stopping is convenient (if we have something we need).

Anyway, we finally drove up to Mt. Rushmore, which is through a lot of interesting looking tourist attractions (which we did not stop at). Lots of people seem to go to S.D. for a couple of weeks and spend their vacation just there! I am beginning to think we could spend our whole 8 month trip in just one state (first it was WA, then ID, then MT, then WY, now SD)! There is too much interesting stuff to see in this country!

The last town before Mt. Rushmore is Keystone, S.D., then the road climbs about 1,200 feet in 3 or 4 miles - a very steep grade for a heavy (if small) RV. Mt. Rushmore is a National Monument, but the parking is run by a concession service so costs $8.00 even if you have a Golden Age Passport (as Mom does). Of course, I had let my cash run low and the parking does not accept credit cards (the gift shops do). After scrounging madly, we finally scrapped together $8.00 in cash and got in. The parking attendent was directing us to the RV area when I mentioned Mom had difficulty walking - then he sent us straight up to the top of the parking area instead - we got a spot only about 50 feet from the gate (if that).

This was such a big tourist draw, I figured I could have other people take our picture an avoid having to carry the tripod. After noticing a fellow taking pictures, I asked if he would mind taking one of Mom & I, and I would of course be willing to take one of him at the entrance. He didn't speak English! However, we were able to communicate with hand gestures and minimal phrases, it turned out he was from France and was there with his family. He did kindly take a shot of us (and when we bumped into him again later, of us by the sculptures statue), but absolutely didn't want his picture taken!

(My cousin Robert has asked us to post more pictures of ourselves, hope we don't break the camera's or your monitors!)

It was still a bit of a walk up to the viewing area, so Mom used her walker and got quite a stroll in. She had been to Mt. Rushmore before and couldn't believe the changes. The mountain is the same of course, but they have added quite an entry way, new museum's and gift shops and a hall for each of the state flags. Mom is continuing to enjoy taking pictures of flowers, me of scenery:

Mt Rushmore itself is interesting, but I think even more interesting with all the additional background information in the Museum and all around. I was quite impressed with it all, while this was one of my 'must see's' for the trip, I expected we'd look at the sculptures then head on out. We ended up staying a couple of hours (and spending way too much in the gift shops - but not as much as at Devils Tower I think). (BTW - or By The Way, the presidents heads are each 60 feet high!)

After Mt Rushmore, Mom noticed on the map that there was a Bison herd at Custer State Park (SP) only a short distance away. I'm glad we didn't realize what a narrow, winding road it was over Iron Mountain or we wouldn't have tried it, but it was very beautiful. Because it was a state park, the road builders didn't want to blow up too much to build the road, so instead they built 'Pigtails', or circular wooden twists in the road to raise the level up for the three - one way - tunnels. This was quite a trip:

If you look through the tunnel carefully, you can even see Mt. Rushmore!

When we got across Iron Mountain, we did see a herd of Bison as well as some donkeys and the ever present prong horn antelope (& deer I think).

Because of the time, we decided to skiddadle up towards Rapid City then take State Hwy 44 to the Badlands National Park. In a way, this was probably a mistake, Hwy 44 is a bad road (but at least is paved). We again saw some wild turkeys along this stretch. When we got to a town called 'Scenic', we saw a sign pointing Left to go to the Badlands Loop Road, so we took it (even though the mileage was given as 25). This meant 25 miles along a Country Road - that was dirt and gravel and frequently washboard affect. In a heavy RV, this meant I often had to drive 5 mph, sometimes getting up to the rip roaring 20 mph.

However, the trip may have been worth it even if it was the back way into the park (maybe I just like going the 'off the beaten path' routes). We went through the Badlands a little at the beginning, then back through prairie and large farms. Mom was really surprised to see as much prairie and farmland as we did, she had expected that most of South Dakota (SD) would be like the heart of the Badlands we saw later. We saw vast fields of sunflower crops (and many more later in other parts of SD). We also saw birds, deer and antelope along this road, but VERY RARELY any other cars or trucks. We didn't see ANY other RV's until we got back to the paved road 25 miles later (and the next day).

A little over 1/2 way in, we again saw Bison right along the road - but these fellows didn't stay in a herd, just hung out a few hundred feet apart munching. We came to a sign saying "Sage Creek Campground 1.2 miles" and decided to take the spur and stay there. This is considered a "Primative" campground by the National Park Service. It had wind breaks (see pictures) and tables, pit toilets, but no other facilities. Along the edges of the campground were posts saying beyond the posts was a Wilderness Area. It turns out that the campground is on the edge of the largest protected wilderness area in the United States.

Beyond being a lovely place (very much a Prairie), we met some interesting people. At one end of the campground were a bunch of horse trailers and folks around campfires. I went over to investigate and found out that the people and trailers were all separate groups - not outfitters or local ranchers - but people on vacation just like us, but with there horses! The group I met was from Wisconsin, they had room in front of the horse trailer for living space and they just traveled with thier horses to ride once they got to their destination. The campground had hitching posts and this space was designated just for these kinds of campers!

I also met a family set up next to us with a car and a small Scamp trailer. It turns out they are from Maine and were also circumnavigating just like us but in the opposite direction! The three kids each had laptops and were working on their travel blog.

So we settled down to a good nights sleep out on the prairie, with a beautiful sunset and not a car or siren sound to be heard anywhere. However, as the night wore on the wind picked up and howled - so we learned a little more about prairie weather.

Starting Mileage: 111296, Ashland MT
Ending Mileage: 111585, Mt Rushmore SD
Weather: Light Rain, overcast, clearing & warmer in PM

After leaving Red Shale Campground in Montana, we drove southeast on Hwy 212 towards Wyoming. We again saw Prong Horned Antelope, but today we saw lots and lots of them - I estimated well over three hundred (not all at one time of course):

I'm also pretty sure I saw a golden eagle, I later confirmed that they frequented this area - but the one I saw was pretty hard to get a good enough photo to confirm the species (at least it wasn't a sparrow):

We drove through a town called Broadus, Montana and stopped at the Powder River to get sand. I realized I hadn't been posting many pictures of the small towns we drove through, so while this isn't very spectacular as a picture, should give you a bit of an idea of a typical small town in the prairie states:

Mom wanted to mail some postcards and we'd been on the road for about an hour (my target is to stop about every hour so we won't get too tired driving), when I saw a sign saying 'Roadside Tables'. I never did find any roadside tables, but there was a Post Office. We weren't sure, the sign on the building was quite faded, so Mom went on inside and sure enough, found it to be the Post Office for Boyes, MT. This wasn't exactly a town, but the home of the lady who served as Postmaster for the area. In the front room next to the Post Office was a sort of personal museum and some store items (pop). Over the years, she and her father (I believe?) had collected Montana licence plates from just about every year they had been issued, numerous knives, guns and ranch equipment (saddles, stirrups, branding irons), antique general store items and all sorts of odds and ends. It was all quite facinating, not the sort of place that would show up on a tourist map (it was just the front rooms of her home), but the kind of thing I love to find - out in the middle of nowhere as some would say:

Here is one of the items she was especially proud of (if you can, try to read the caption explaining what materials were used to make the figure):

Throughout Montana, Wyoming and later prairie states we continued to pass old, abandoned buildings (in my town, they would be ordered demolished) and typical farm/ranch scenes such as windmills:

At first we were going to head straight to Mt. Rushmore, but I decided at the last minute to go ahead and turn south first and visit Devils Butte. The weather was cool and rainy when we headed out, but the sun burned off the clouds and it was clear and sunny most of the day, but still a bit on the cool side (mid 60's). As we got closer to Devils Butte, we could clearly see it standing above the rest of the area, quite unique. Teddy Roosevelt set it aside as a National Monument even though he never saw it, he could tell from the pictures and descriptions of his advisors that it was a really special place that needed to be protected. We also learned that it is one of the most popular places for 'crack climbing', a form of rock climbing. The top is about 1.5 acres of grassland, but the sides are so steep that the only animals on top are a few rodents and birds. Also, scientists don't know exactly what caused the geometric shaped columns - although they have offered many different possibilities:

In addition to prong horned antelepe and the eagle, we also saw more deer (white tail and others), red tailed hawk, vultures, rabbits, sheep, cattle and horses.

After Devils Tower, we continued to head to Mt. Rushmore, but before we got out of Wyoming, saw signs for a town called Upton, WY, population 872 - self proclaimed "Worlds Greatest Town". Mom and I were commenting about what sort of person may have come up with such a claim, when I noticed a collection of old buildings in a site called "Old Town". I turned the RV around and went in to check. Nobody was there, but the place was Open (although the buildings were all locked). There was also a genuine Sod House! Since the buildings were locked, the interior shots had to be taken through glass, but hopefully will give you more of an idea of how people lived a century ago in Wyoming.

• ** The Old Town project began in 1995 to relocate cabins and other structures essential to the late 1800's and early 1900's life in Wyoming. These cabins and structures have been moved to the original site of Upton, then known as Iron Town, and restored to preserve an important era of local heritage.The story goes that the Irish woman who named our town gave birth here one night and population doubled.Every summer, on the third Saturday in July, the population still doubles as past residents and alumni from all over come back for a celebration with old friends and relatives.With thanks to Upton's homepage, it can be found easily on any search engine. Submitted by: Ryan J. Hill ***

Here is the School:

Here is the Sod House, it was maybe 16 feet on each side:

I stopped at one more museum in Newcastle, Wyoming but they were almost closed and I won't bore you with the pictures. Mom was relieved that we finally made it out of Wyoming!

It was too late to see Mt. Rushmore by the time we got to South Dakota. We could see the new Crazy House sculpture from the highway and it appears to be coming along, although a long way from being finished. If you look closely, you can see the profile of the face and a hole forming under what will be his outstretched arm:

We pushed it kind of hard today (close to 300 miles), together with spending time at Devils Tower and Old Town (Upton, WY) (and taking lots of pictures) - we got to Mt. Rushmore area kind of late. We checked into an RV park (with HS internet) and will do Mt. Rushmore in the morning. We also met some very interesting folks in the RV park. First, there was a couple camping with their Motorcycles! They had a tent trailer specifically designed for bikes that opened up even larger then my RV! Then there were a couple of gals van camping next to us from Ohio. They run a historic farm and were interested in the Spinning Wheel Uncle Bill made for me:

http://www.longtimeagofarm.com/

In the meantime, chores never end:

Starting Mileage: 111150, Billings MT
Ending Mileage: 111296, Ashland MT
Weather: Cool, Light Rain

In Billings, we were able to get to the Yellowstone River so Mom could collect some sand. The city park we were in had some awfully big cottonwood trees!

This also turned out to be the point where Lewis & Clark crossed the river, while the town of Billings has grown up around the area, the river itself probably looks much like it did in 1804.

The weather was cool and rainy. We then drove on to the Little Bighorn National Battlefield where Custer and his band were defeated in the infamous 'Custer's Last Stand'. I had been there once before, but this time I took the time to hike the trails and drive the 5 mile road to Reno's battlefield. I learned a lot more about the battles that took place. Mom isn't into those sorts of things, so mostly enjoyed the wild flowers and vistas.

The visitors center is just inside the park entrance, and the site where Custer and about 40 of his men died is just above the visitors center. This is called 'Last Stand Hill', Custer died in a cluster near the top (His marker has the black on it). You also have a clear view of the Little Bighorn Valley below where the indian encampment was.

From the visitors center, I hiked down a path to the "Deep Ravine", soldiers had died along the path and in the ravine. The markers just indicate where the soldiers fell, the bodies were buried in a mass grave at the top of "Last Stand Hill", although the bodies of some of the officers (like Custer) were later moved to other cemetaries. Many markers are not identified, other than as "U.S. Soldier".

The locations where some native americans fell are also marked with red markers, but most of those locations are not known. There were far fewer native casualties in this battle and most of the native dead were removed to the village after the battle, so the locations where they fell are lost to history.

Before the battle, Custer was leading about 600 men in the U.S. 7th Cavalry (soldiers on horseback). When he found the Indian Camp at dawn on June 25, 1876, he was afraid the Indians would scatter before he had time to attack. Even though the Indian camp was much, much larger than he had expected and some of his guides advised him not to attack (fearing a slaughter), Custer split his regiment into three battalions. He retained five companies under his immediate command and assigned three companies each to Major Reno and Captain Benteen. Benteen was ordered to scout the bluffs to the south. Reno was ordered to attack the southern end of the Indian camp in the valley and Custer turned north towards the other end of the encampment with the intention of attacking the camp from both ends and trapping the Indians between his and Maj. Reno's commands.

Maj. Reno attacked as ordered, but was quickly overwhelmed and withdrew. All of these sites are well marked on the battlefield with plenty of interpretive information.

After finally crossing the Little Bighorn River, Maj. Reno's command regrouped at the top of the bluff and formed a defensive position. He was later joined by Capt. Benteen and they dug in and largely survived the onslaught for the next couple of days. We drove the five miles from "Last Stand Hill" to Reno's defensive position and they were a LONG way apart. I could also see that Maj. Reno's position was on a steeper bluff and probably more defensable than "Last Stand Hill". The position itself was in a bit of a bowl shape at the top of the bluff and they even set up a makeshift hospital in the center.

In the battle, 210 men in the five companies under Custer all died as well as 53 men under Reno and Benteen. The Indians are estimated to have had less than 100 killed. The tribes and families scattered. Most of them returned to the reservations and surrendered within the next few years. You can learn more about this interesting period in our history at:

http://www.nps.gov/libi/

While we were there, our phones started beeping with missed messages. It seems there are few cell phone signals in many of the area's we've been travelling, so voice mail just keeps piling up until we get into cell phone range.

I spent so long at the battlefield that we didn't make much headway today. We camped at a lovely state park in Custer National Forest called the Red Shale Campground, just past Ashland, MT. (We also did see a hawk, which of course I pulled over to try to 'shoot' - with a camera that is)

Starting Mileage: 110912, East Helena, MT
Ending Mileage: 111150, Billings, MT
Weather, Cool, Overcast, clearing in PM

Again, we'll write more here shortly, it's getting pretty late so will have to try to get some done in the AM....

When we got near I90, we saw a large wheat farm and started seeing signs advertising "Wheat Montana". There was a large bakery (I believe this is a chain now) and store right at the I90 interchange, so we stopped in. They had a lot of stuff for sale, including 50 pound sacks of wheat as well as breads, sandwitches, and tourist goods (coffee mugs, etc.). Mom wanted to try a sweatroll, but they were so big we opted to share one. We also bought a loaf of Pioneer Bread and Banana Bread.

We finally saw prong horn antelope, praire dogs and cotten tail rabbits today, all along I90!

(Note: The above are "Thumbnails", or small versions of photo's that you can click on and get a bigger version. Do you prefer these or that I just post the big version in the blog? It may not matter much, in a few day's I'll run out of space on Travellerspoint and have to link photo's from another location, such as Flickr.)

When we got to Bozeman, MT - we turned off to try out the Museum of the Rockies. I had mixed feelings, never have been much of a museum fan (except for the Royal Canadian Museum in Victory, B.C) The Museum was OK (for me anyway), seems their specialty is dinosaurs. The entrance even had a full size replica of their most famous staff member, "Big Mike":

Inside was the real Big Mike:

Here are a few other exhibits I found interesting. Mom especially remembered the "Woodie" from her youth.

I don't particularly like going to the dentist, even though I do regularly, but am especially glad mine is better equipped than this!

Finally, here are a couple of shots of a Sheep Wagon (Exterior & Interior). This is how a sheppard would follow and tend his flock around the turn of the century, with this particular wagon in use from 1915 - 1960. Using this method (& dog), a sheppard could manage 1,000 sheep or so.

Out side was even better, they had moved all the buildings from an actual pioneer homestead onto an area just outside the museum and set it all up as it had been when in use. The day we were there, several local 're-enactors' were playing the role of the Tinsley family, in period costume - which added greatly to the experience. William and Lucy Tinsley moved into a small log cabin (about the same size as the Manlove cabin) and lived there for 17 years. In 1889, they built this much larger home on their homestead:

The Parlor was unoccupied when we were there, all the womenfolk were in the Kitchen cooking and cleaning up from an earlier meal:

Some of the 'family' had been out back picking Apples (they also had a cider press in the back yard, so I imagine some of the apples were going to end up as juice):

In the back were also a woodshed (in the 1800's in Montana, you probably needed a lot of wood to get through the winters), and a blacksmith shop. The original cabin the family had lived in was converted to the blacksmith shop after the new house was built. The forge was used to repair plows and tools if they broke (you couldn't just run to the store and buy a new one), to make horseshoe's and a variety of other things. <<I have a video of the blacksmith making an iron hook, will try to post it soon>>:

After spending a considerable amount of time with the 'Tinsley' family at their homestead, I noticed another 'exhibit' in the field on the other side of the museum. This turned out to be a "Lewis & Clark Challenge Course". It wasn't a challenge course in the usual sense (physically hard), but had a number of things you could do or review to learn more about the expedition, things they had to do or encounter. At one stop was a small put put green in the rough shape of the USA, with rock obsticales where the Rocky Mountains should be. They also had a replica of the river boat the explorers had used during the first portion of their trip up the Missouri River. Another stop had a ball that dropped through some tubes - if you could run around a fence before the ball dropped an hit a bell, you could outrun a bear (I got eaten by the bear of course). They also had a Tipi villae set up with a statue of a horse pulling the pole platform I described earlier (how the Native's carried their Tipi's and belongings when they migrated).

After the expedition left the large river, they started making and using canoe's that they had learned from the native peoples. These were small, here is a replica:

Finally, we drove on to Billings, Montana (Where Penny lived for many years) and found a nice RV Park on the Yellowstone River:

Starthing Mileage: 110728, 8 Mi. N of Browning, MT
Ending Mileage: 110912, East Helena, MT
Weather: Cool, Overcast

We did see some mule deer today, as well as lots of cattle & horses. I've lost track of exactly where I took these pictures, but they are between Glacier NP and Helena! The cowboy was out riding with his dog, it was just too 'old west' to resist:

Along the Montana highways (as well as elsewhere I believe), we kept seeing 'Open Range' road signs. We finally figured out what this means (do you see any fences?):

(The above photo's were probably taken on 9/6, I just forgot to post them, but it was evening which is why they're a little darker). The campground we stayed in the night before was
windsept and bleak, so I decided not to depress myself and post pictures of it. It was only about 5 miles north of Browning, and we left it as quickly as we could. Heading on into Browning, we saw the "Museum of the Plains Indians" just at the road junction we needed to turn, so decided to give it a look. Unfortunately, they didn't allow any photography within the museum, so we can't show you some of the neat stuff they had. You can see Mom using her walker to head into the museum however (I'm sure glad we brought that - she's been able to get around to a lot of the places we go because of it.)

The museum had displays explaining a lot about indian clothing, tribes and daily life. They also had a couple of diarama's that were very interesting. One thing I learned is that they migrated using two poles that held a platform for their belongings. The poles would be towed by dogs, and later horses, and dragged on the ground.

After the museum, I went a little farther into Browning to get gas and Mom saw a Blackfeet Interpretive Center and Gift shop across the street. They had this neat statue out front of a cowboy riding a bull, but I should have walked across also to get a better angle (I was still grouchy from the lousy campground the night before I think, so stayed in the RV).

Just south of Browning, we entered the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. This picture is from the display at the south end as we left the reservation, but I thought it would be interesting to show it here. Mom had me zoom in and take several shots of the details, but I think they show up OK so will just post the one shot:

There were a lot of interesting signs along the road pointing out locations of historical interest. Here is one, followed by a shot of the location it describes (Heart Mountian is in the background). I have many more, but won't upload them to save space & time (if you want me to email them to you, let me know).

As we drove south from Browning to Helena, Montana - we could almost always see the Rocky Mountains to our right. This area is called the "Front Range" and was used as a historical migration path by the plains indians, probably because it was so easy to navigate with the mountains always in sight. I finally decided to try different filters on my camera and actually took several versions of this shot. I'm not sure I learned much from the exercise, but it's fun to play around (maybe I'll get the hang of it yet - fortuantely my camera is pretty forgiving and takes decent pictures without my help).

I think I actually took this farther north (before we entered the reservation), but lost track of exactly where. We saw a lot of examples of new log cabins throughout the rocky mountain states. People in this area really seem to embrace the lore of the old west:

I also failed to note exactly where Egg Mountain was, but you might find the sign more interesting than the spot:

Somewhere along this route, we had to stop for about 20 minutes to wait for a pilot car to escort us along 9 miles of road work (or maybe 12, I've forgotten already). Clair informed us that there are only two seasons in Montana: Winter and 'Road Work'! She also said some of the odd land shapes we were seeing (see the hills in the background) were caused by Wind Erosion (I guess this is a common feature of the 'front range' area):

When we got to Helena, it was too late to check out the museum, so we got gas and drove on to East Helena. The map showed several nice state parks along the road to Bozeman, but I pulled off the highway to check out one more historical sight and decided to just stay there for the night. If you think your house is too small, check this out:

The homestead building is only about 16' by 16'. I don't know if the kids complained much, but they were probably glad just to have a roof over their heads back then. So we proceded to get some supper on the table when Mom exclaimed "Look at that sunset!". Of course we grabbed our cameras...